Game 38 - 18 - 20 - Ricky Romero gets 26 outs and Bautista smacks number 12

So Ricky Romero pitched a gem of a game and through the first 18 batters he faced he had only allowed two walks and one was retired on a double play ball by Drew Butera and he was rolling along until the 6 inning with 2 outs when Denard Span singled past a diving Johnny Mac at third for the Twins first hit of the night. Romero was visible upset so the next batter Trevor Plouffe grounded it to Johnny Mac and he throw to first and Edwin was not able to get it but J.P. was backing up on the play so nobody advanced which lead to Ricky getting Jason Kubel to ground out to Yunel Escobar who throw to Edwin at first to end the inning. He gave up a hit to Justin Morneau and that was his only other hit until he got into the 9 inning with a 2-0 lead behind him and Trevor Plouffe lead off with Ricky's third walk of the game but Ricky followed that up with strike outs of Jason Kubel and Justin Morneau which got him to 100 pitches which brought out John Farrell who basically asked how are you feeling and Ricky said great and continued pitching and faced Delmon Young who singled on Ricky's first pitch and the night was over for Ricky Romero after getting the first 26 outs. Frank Francisco came in to face Michael Cuddyer who battled with runners on first and second and got it to a full count but then Frank Francisco catch him on a check swing that went to far and the Jays won their 3 in a row 2-0.

The Twins starter Carl Pavano struggled given up 7 hits and 3 walks but no runs in 5.1 innings as the Jays left 2 walks and a single on in the first and left 2 singles on in the second while they left on a double and a walk on in third which meant throw the first 3 innings the Jays batters had left 7 runners on base. Finally in the 7 inning after Pavano left the Jays got on the board as Cory Patterson singled and Bautista walked which brought up the struggling Juan Rivera who hit a gaper that scored Patterson and the Jays lead 1-0 going into the 9 inning where Jose Bautista lead off the inning with his 12th bomb of the season and the Jays had their 2 runs in the game. The Blue Jays were disgusting 2 for 15 with runners in scoring position and 14 Jays were stranded on the bases throughout the game and if it was not for Ricky Romero's performance of 8.2 innings of 4 hit shutout ball with 2 walks and 8 strike outs with 64 strikes and 37 balls in 101 pitches the Jays would have still been in the basement of the AL east.

Three in a row lets make it four Blue Jays

Tom Mehegan